GLIMPSES OF LIFE ALONG A CORAL REEF. 325 



just one hundred and thirty-nine of them. They resemble a white 

 rubber ball, an inch and a half in diameter. The sea-turtle's eggs 

 have a peculiar flavor, but are very palatable. The glair becomes 

 tough and leathery by boiling, and is always thrown away. The 

 breeding-season of the loggerhead ( Chelonia caretta) lasts from May 

 well into August, according to the statement of our guide, who also 

 said that they deposited eggs several times in this period, producing as 

 many as one hundred and eighty at the first laying, and perhaps no 

 more than two or three at the last. The natives make a business-like 

 search for these eggs each year, and sometimes surprise the female 

 turtle on the beach. When she has once begun the egg-laying pro- 

 cess, it has to be finished, even if she is turned on her back and made 

 a prisoner immediately after. The extraordinary egg -producing power 

 of these animals is all that preserves them from immediate extinction,* 



Fig. 7.— The Wild Sapodilla {Sapofa acJirai). (Throe fonrths natural eize, showing eome of 

 the old fruit and the new flowers aud leaves.) 



Large forest-trees, such as pine, cedar, and mastic, which grow on 

 Abaco, do not occur on the keys. "VVe find here, however, smaller 

 trees and shrubs in great variety. Besides those already mentioned, 



* Some time ago a large grouper was speared by a fisherman off Sand Key near 

 Nassau, and twenty-two young loggerheads were found in its stomach. This fish was 

 doubtless feeding along the shore, and had evidently snapped up the young turtles just 



